NEW DELHI: Undeterred by the global slowdown, Indian Inc is spending on corporate travel, pushing up the outbound market for MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions).

The Indian outbound MICE market is estimated to be around $550-600 million and is expected to increase by 10%-15% this year.

About 1.5-1.8 million passengers travelled outbound for meetings and conventions. Pharmaceuticals, cement FMCG, IT and financial services are the major industries contributing to the sector.

Forecasting a strong growth, Travelport COO Heena Akhtar said the industry was expected to grow by 10-15%. "The slowdown meant that regular companies cut down on their corporate travel last year. But this year, we are expecting a revival in incentivized travel and meetings by corporates,'' she said.

According to a study on India's MICE market by Synovate Business Consulting, the most popular destinations in Europe in the last two years included Germany with 73% opting for the destination followed by UK (52%), France (51%) and Switzerland (45%).

Speaking on the interest in Germany, German National Tourist Office director (sales and marketing) Romit Theophilus said, "Indians have a high spending capacity and we are expecting a 10-15% growth in business tourist arrivals this year.''

GNTO has seen a sustained growth of 20% year-on-year from Indian travelers with the number of visitor overnights growing by 26.2% in 2010 as compared to January-December 2009.

Lower hotel rates and carrier options in Europe supported by infrastructure, the vast number of businesses placed in European countries and services have popularized Germany as a business travel destination according to the report.

Other destinations too have seen significant growth from Indian tourist arrivals under the MICE segment including Hong Kong by 12%, Malaysia (15%), Thailand (30%) and Czech Republic by 40%.

The study also pointed out that top management accounted for 70% of the meetings and 50% of the conferences in MICE trips. Incentive trips were mostly conducted for executives and middle management accounting for 30% of the MICE trips.

Among the factors considered important for corporate travel are nature tourism, food and dining and cultural tourism, the report said.

Incidentally, countries like Austria, Indonesia, Turkey and Bhutan have offered discounted offers to woo large size groups while new entrants like Czech Republic, Spain and South Africa are pitching for an India-centric policy to tap the Indian MICE segment.

Source :timesofindia.indiatimes.com